Hypnotherapy for Pain Reduction and Pain Management

Managing pain is a proven area for hypnosis and has been used in surgical operations as well as conditions associated with chronic pain such as cancer and arthritis. Once again hypnosis works by inducing a relaxed state and lessening the severity of the pain felt. As well as undergoing guided hypnosis sessions, sufferers can also learn to employ self-hypnosis to control pain outside a session.

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Although some health care providers may overlook alternative therapies when treating functional bowel disorders such as irritable bowel syndrome, University of Florida faculty members have found evidence that hypnosis and cognitive behavioral therapy may benefit patients suffering from these diseases.Led by researchers Oliver Grundmann of the UF College of Pharmacy and Saunjoo “Sunny” Yoon of the UF College of Nursing, the study was published in the European Journal of Integrative Medicine, which highlighted it as the “Editors Choice” in its August issue.“Our work being highlighted in this way indicates that we are able to raise awareness for the issue of a more integrative and holistic approach to medical care in the area of functional bowel disorders in the scientific community — a goal that both Dr. Yoon and I have been striving for in our professional endeavors for many years,” said Grundmann, a clinical assistant professor in the College of Pharmacy.The researchers reviewed 19 recent clinical trials to examine the potential benefits of using four common mind-body therapies — yoga, hypnotherapy, cognitive behavioral therapy and biofeedback — in the treatment of functional bowel disorders. In particular, the researchers found indications there were some benefits to hypnotherapy and cognitive behavioral therapy.“It is still very hard to replicate some of the studies or generalize the findings,” said Yoon, an associate professor in the College of Nursing, adding there is a need for more studies. “Some of the research methodologies are not consistent from one study to another and some of the studies have a small sample size or the designs do not provide the rigor or obvious protocol.”Functional bowel disorders occur when the stomach and bowels aren’t working properly and are typically accompanied by stomach pain, bloating and other intestinal symptoms. Treatments typically target these symptoms.For about five years, Yoon and Grundmann have been studying and publishing material on complementary and alternative medicine, which includes treatments with dietary supplements, acupuncture and yoga.Because functional bowel disorders are chronic conditions that come and go over time, patients sometimes develop negative attitudes that can affect treatments. Cognitive behavioral therapy is used in an attempt to help patients feel more positive. In one study the researchers examined, cognitive behavioral therapy worked as well as antidepressant medications.Hypnosis, on the other hand, is used in an attempt to reduce pain. Some of the studies the researchers reviewed showed that hypnotherapy worked as well as medication to reduce pain in patients.But although the results were promising, they were not conclusive, Yoon said.“A lot of times we get contradictory results from the clinical trials, so it can be confusing for the readers or the clinicians when they read it,” Yoon said. “Our article can give them a better picture or better view about currently available clinical trials and the results of the trials.”Yoon said doctors should not exclude complementary therapies when treating functional bowel disorders.“We just need to have an open mind to the therapies that are not familiar in Western countries,” Yoon said.The open-access version of the article can be found athttp://authors.elsevier.com/sd/article/S1876382013000590.

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A multidisciplinary group of researchers from Finland (University of Turku and University of Helsinki) and Sweden (University of Skövde) has now found evidence that hypnotic suggestion can modify processing of a targeted stimulus before it reaches consciousness. The experiments show that it is possible to hypnotically modulate even highly automatic features of perception, such as color experience. The results are presented in two articles published in PLoS ONE and International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis. The nature of hypnotically suggested changes in perception has been one of the main topics of controversy during the history of hypnosis. The major current theories of hypnosis hold that we always actively use our own imagination to bring about the effects of a suggestion. For example the occurrence of visual hallucinations always requires active use of goal directed imagery and can be experienced both with and without hypnosis.The study published in PLoS ONE was done with two very highly hypnotizable participants who can be hypnotized and dehypnotized by just using a one-word cue. The researchers measured brains oscillatory activity from the EEG in response to briefly displayed series of red or blue shapes (squares, triangles or circles). The participants were hypnotized and given a suggestion that certain shapes always have a certain color (e.g. all squares are always red). Participant TS-H reported constantly experiencing a change in color immediately when a suggested shape appeared on the screen (e.g. seeing a red square when the real color was blue). The researchers found that this experience was accompanied with enhanced high-frequency brain activity already 1/10 second after the stimulus appeared and it was only seen in response to the shapes mentioned in the suggestion. The second participant did not experience the color change or the enhanced activity. However, she reported a peculiar feeling when a suggestion-relevant shape was presented: "sometimes I saw a shape that was red but my brain told me it had a different color."This enhanced oscillatory brain activity is proposed to reflect automatic comparison of input to memory representations. In this case the hypnotic suggestion "all squares are red" led to a memory trace that was automatically activated when a square was presented. Furthermore, for the participant TS-H the effect was strong enough to override the real color of the square. The matching must have occurred preconsciously because of the early timing of the effect and the immediacy of the color change. Also, both participants reported having performed under posthypnotic amnesia without conscious memory of the suggestions.In the article published in International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis TS-H was tested in a similar type of setting, however, only behavioral data, including accuracy and response times in color recognition, were collected. These results further support that a hypnotic suggestion affects her color perception of targeted objects before she becomes conscious of them. Furthermore, TS-H was not capable of changing her experience of visually presented stable images without the use of hypnotic suggestions i.e. by using mere mental imagery.Importantly, both of these experiments were done by using a posthypnotic suggestion. The effect was suggested during hypnosis but the experience was suggested to occur after hypnosis. Thus all the experiments were carried out while participants were in their normal state of consciousness.This result indicates that all hypnotic responding can no longer be regarded merely as goal directed mental imagery. It shows that in hypnosis it is possible to create a memory trace that influences early and preconscious stages of visual processing already about 1/10 second after the appearance of a visual target. This result has important implications in psychology and cognitive neuroscience especially when studying visual perception, memory and consciousness.The Finnish part of the research is funded by the Academy of Finland.

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